Happy New Year from Hellyer's Puppet Workshop

So we've successfully reached the end of 2010... a year packed full of great memories!

This year in the summer I was fortunate enough to visit the United States again to teach puppetry at I-Fest (you can buy DVDs of the workshops I taught from OneWayStreet.com). Despite the festival being fantastic as usual (and being looked after so well by the One Way Street team - Thanks to Todd and Susan!) the highlight of the trip this year had to be the visit to see the Blue Man Group in Chicago! Dave and June Privett from Playsoup took us along and we had a fantastic time!

Also in the summer I was able to visit my friend Phil Fletcher again who is a fantastic puppeteer and puppet builder. We've known each other since the good old days when MySpace ruled the earth and Facebook hadn't even been invented :) Phil is now working at the BBC in London and he (and Warrick - also a puppeteer at the BBC) were kind enough to show us round TV Centre and their studio.

Later on in the year I also taught at the One Way UK annual puppet festival in Reading, I have been teaching at that particular festival for the last 13 or so years so it was great to be asked back again (must be doing something right). 

And all this activity has been squeezed in between puppet builds and some fairly major planning sessions for the future of Hellyer's Puppet Workshop (the fruits of which will be seen in 2011).  I'll leave you with two videos... the first is Pierre's big end of year 2010 quiz:

The second is a wrap up from me and a possible New Year resolution.

All the best for 2011!
Take care - Dave

Is it just me?

Is it just me or is this year flying past? I keep on meaning to write updates on here and whenever i get the chance i check the date of my last post and i am shocked it was so long ago.

I mentioned before that I have been in talks with the Museum in Peru about building some characters for them... that's all still in progress. I am building prototypes for approval at the moment. It's nice to be involved in a project which is challenging because it is completely different from the norm. Normally people want cartoon style characters with lots of stand out features etc, but this job is different. The museum quite rightly has a very clear goal of what the want to see made, and it's a great challenge to work towards this. Apart from anything else it's a great discipline!

This summer I will be attending I-Fest for the first time in 6 or 7 years! It's really exciting and I hope to learn a lot. I am excited to be teaching my first ever workshops out there this year, which is a great honour for me because I am someone who has learnt so much at I-Fest workshops down the years. I have been fortunate enough to be on tow puppetry Dream Teams at I-Fest in the past so I have some very fond memories of that particular puppet festival and I am really looking forward to meeting some old friends while I'm out there. I am planning to travel with Harry Barrett from One Way UK, so it looks like it's shaping up to be an old school reunion!

Have a great Easter - Dave

The Peruvian Connection

So I must apologise for being slack in posting recently... I have been really busy and honestly haven't had a chance. I am hoping for things to calm down a bit in the next week or so.

Before I went away on my holiday I received an email out of the blue from a gentleman in Peru. This in itself is not completely out of the ordinary as i have been fortunate enough to receive emails from people all round the world saying how much they enjoy Pierre's videos etc. However this email was different, whilst he had seen Pierre's videos that wasn't the point of the correspondence. He is a representative from the National Sican Museum of Peru, and he has commissioned me to build the puppets for the Education Centre at their museum. This project is not going to be a small one, and will probably be the subject of many more blogs in the future. It is a real honour to be allowed to be a part of this project. I will be creating some really unique characters for the museum over the next few weeks and months, and i will show them to you as and when they are complete. The concept sketches that have come through look great so i am really excited about turning them into reality.

I'll keep you posted.
All the best - Dave

Progress in the Workshop

I am recovering from Superbowl Sunday... i went up to Battersea Park to the Super Bash hosted by NFL-UK. It was a great night with a turnout of 4,000 people. Following the Giants win at Wembley last year over the Miami Dolphins the majority of the crowd (myself included) were rooting for the Giants. What a fantastic game... two really important plays from Eli Manning turned the game around. A famous victory for the underdog!

Anyway back to puppetry - Billy the emo Kid is on Ebay and going to be sold on Wednesday. Check out the video below to see him. Newbie the purple monster will be going onto Ebay once the sale of Billy has finished. My partnership application with YouTube got approved on saturday. Having read all the small print i doubt i will make any money off it, but at least i have now got control over the banners on my page! I'll be posting more progress soon.

Take care - Dave

Take home a little piece of the workshop

Some of you will remember that i started this puppet a while ago but never finished it. Well good news is here! I found myself with some unexpected free time yesterday and i finished him off. And even better i am pleased to announce that he is on ebay as of NOW!

If you are a puppeteer or you are a collector and would like to own a "one-of-a-kind" 20inch boy puppet then bid away :)

It's the first puppet i've ever sold on ebay... so i hope somebody sees it who likes it. If it goes well i will be putting more characters up there for sale.

All the best folks - Dave

Newbie Tuesday!

Last night i was very excited to put the finishing touches on my first ever character with a moving eyebrow mechanism. I learnt a lot about what to do and what to avoid... in all the character had 3 sets of eyebrows made for him until i was finally happy with the result. This is a landmark character in a couple of ways really, firstly due to the eyebrows but also because of the fur. I bought this purple fur fabric in a tiny fabric store in Brighton last summer, it's about 4 inch long pile. This is the longest fur i have ever worked with... it was great fun but very messy (despite my best efforts to be tidy!).

"Newbie" as he is known at the moment (it's a phase they all go through) is a single handed human arm puppet - made specifically for a solo performer. This means there is no second hand hanging around waiting for a second puppeteer. Newbie is made for a right handed puppeteer.

Take care folks - Dave

Brief Techy Update

Hi folks - really sorry i haven't posted in the last week. I will probably be posting this weekend with pics from my latest project. This is just a brief update to say that i have added two new features to the blog. Firstly the YouTube video bar in the bottom right. This video bar automatically updates with my latest crex81 videos, so if you're not the sort of person that uses YouTube you can catch all the latest vids here instead. Also "Hello" to all the Facebookers out there! I have added a live update from my Facebook page. This is just a bit of fun, but if you're a regular reader and you have a Facebook why not drop me a line - it'd be great to hear from you! (same goes for Myspace - the link's in the side)

That's it for today, the puffin is 90% complete so i will post pictures soon.
Take care - Dave

2008 has been a crazy year... and it's only the 11th!

My year started on a bad note - my trusty sewing machine decided to break again! It's with the menders at the moment and i am chomping at the bit ready and waiting for it to return so i can finish off my latest project (a puffin). I have been talking to people about it and they all ask - "why a puffin?" to which the only honest answer is "why not?". Whilst they are loevly birds i have no particular emotional tie to them... i just liked their colourful beaks i think so i decided to make one. Below is a video i made in the heat of the moment about the sewing machine.

I will pick up the sewing machine next week if all things go well. Since then my week has been fantastic. I have recieved some really encouraging emails from people who have been watching my YouTube videos as well as having been contacted by two TV networks who are interested in using my puppets on their channels! So even though i have only lived 11 days in 2008 i have already decided this is gong to be a good year!

all the best folks :) Dave

Christmas & New Year

So it's nearly hear... it seems like you wait all year for it and then it's over all too soon. I don't know if it's just me, but i always seems to get more excited about New Year rather than Christmas. Don't get me wrong - Christmas is great, and i'm all up for celebrating Jesus coming to earth, but personally i have always thought there really is something special about New Year.

• It could be the promise that next year you have a clean slate again... the year is what you make it.


• It could be the feeling of optimism that seems to be in bountiful supply at this time of year.


• It could be that i am welcoming the prospect of closing the chapter on the year just gone.

Of course it's none of these and all of these at the same time. In some ways no one feeling is more important than the other... all are equally important. However before some of you look at my thoughts and think must have had a really bad year, that just isn't true. Here are a few of my personal highlights of the year so far:

• Seeing my brother and his family twice in one year, including seeing my nephew for the first time ever!


• I was able to meet up with my extended family to celebrate my Grandmother's 100th birthday! (that's something not many people can say)


• I made some great friendships at work, despite the fact that many of these friends have moved on.


• Thanks to the help of some great friends i have made some huge steps forward in my puppet building and i look forward to expanding my puppetry in the year ahead.

I would like to thank everyone who has supported my videos on YouTube, i know they are random and sometimes a little crazy, but they have come in very handy. In the past year i have been approached a couple of times by TV companies looking for new performers and new ideas... thanks to you all watching my videos! I am considering combining both my channels into one "super channel", but the jury is still out on that one.

Thanks for your support, have a great Christmas and New Year!

All the best - Dave

December update

Sorry i haven't posted in a while, it's Christmas soon which means the whole world seems to step up a gear. I worked at not one but two Christmas parties on Sunday, and i have a few more before i can finally put my feet up for the holiday.

This however is a quick note to say "hello" and "yes, i'm still alive". I have posted a little pic which shows the new character i'm working on with the ears i mention in the video added. I think there is a certain "Dennis the Menace" quality about him at the moment... not Dennis himself, but he looks like he could be at home in one of those cartoons for sure.

Take care - Dave

I got my baby back!

Yesterday my baby returned home after a week away from me... i am of course speaking about my sewing machine :) (snappy headlines just help you get interested in the blog that's all)

So here's a pic of me and my Singer re-united. It's bizarre i have worked without a sewing machine for years, i am a really quite quick and hand sewing now after all the practise... but as soon as i got my sewing machine i became dependant! As a result i have got very little work done since my partner in crime left me.

It was kinda fun trying to find a sewing machine repair man for an old Singer 507... a lot of the new machines are all digital and able to be computer programmed, so it was important to find an old fashioned repair man. Thankfully i did find one after a recommendation from a local fabric store. The chap who fixed it was a nice retired gentleman who asked me a few questions about my machine over the phone and said straight away that it sounded like one of the cogs under the footplate had stripped and would need to be replaced. I booked the 507 in for a service reassured that the repair man told me it was "a good machine - well worth repairing" (well he would, wouldn't he) it's all fixed now and working good as new! He also proudly presented me with the stripped cog at my front door when he returned my machine... it was a lovely "i told you so" moment :)

take care - Dave

Wonnacott Wolf

Wonnacott Wolf is finally finished and i've posted his first video onto YouTube (see below). You will have seen before that he was very nearly completed but there were a couple of details that were not yet complete. Now with a set of half moon specs and a smart collar and tie Wannacott Wolf is ready to face the world.

I think the process of building puppets is fascinating... at what point does this collection of foam and fur stop being raw material and start being alive? The obvious answer is when the puppeteer picks it up, but sometimes that isn't true. I think with some characters you form and instant bond, you "know" them as soon as you see them. You are able to pick up the character and immediately start performing with them. I found this with Spam, the second i started to use a Scottish accent with him everything fell into place. Other times you have to work at developing a character for them. Wonnacott Wolf for me has been a "grower". You know those songs you hear which you don't pay much attention to at first, but after a week or so you think they are fantastic. It's not that the song has beaten you into submission and you are forced into liking it... you just needed time to get to know it. It's the same thing with certain characters for me. Pierre is so much a part of me that i don't even have to think when performing him. I never need scripts and it's all ad-libbed, Spam and Mooney are the same. Wonnacott Wolf will become like that once i have made a couple of videos with him and settled down into the character a bit more.

I have posted two videos below, one of Wonnacott Wolf's introduction to the crex81 channel and the second is a short piece of video which is me ranting at the camera between takes whilst making Wonnacott Wolf's first video.

All the best - Dave

Wonders in the workshop

This past weekend we have played host to our good friend Phil from the Gluvets. Phil is an expert puppeteer and puppet builder, and this was a wonderful oppurtunity to meet up and exchange ideas. Over the course of the weekend we worked on a brand new puppet project which you can see very soon. This puppet will be finished off shortly - as soon as the sewing machine recovers from its over active weekend!

One of my personal highlights of the weekend was getting to "meet" some of Phils great charaters. Here you can see me with a brilliant dragon puppet Phil made recently. I think you will agree that the character is very special!

I was also pleased to introduce Phil to Pierre and the crex81 crew. On the left you can see Phil meeting Moony for the first time. Phil and I made a couple of videos with Pierre and Lab Rat, but as i spent most of the time laughing it's hard to know how much of them will be useable. We did however get plenty of great photos which will doubtless find their way onto the Hellyer's myspace and The Gluvets' myspace.

Keep your eyes open over the next week or so as I try and get the best pics and videos online. Also there will be a brand new character getting a crex81 debut as soon as he is completed.

In the mean time check out this timelapse from the workshop. You can tell by the work - joke ratio that it was a productive, but very funny weekend!

All the best - Dave

The Muppetcast (lost in translation)

Many of you who are muppet fans will already be familiar with a weekly podcast called The MuppetCast. It's a great informative show put together and hosted by Steve Swanson. Last week i thought i would email Steve and let him know how much i have enjoyed listening to the podcast over the last month or so since i found it. I was then delighted to hear him read out my email on this weeks show!

I have been to the states 5 or 6 times and i have always got on well with pretty much everyone i have met. There is absolutely no doubting that there is a difference in world view between Americans and the British, but that is nothing compared to the difference between our vocabulary. I was reminded of this very quickly when i heard Steve read out my email. I had told him that i had "been a puppeteer since i could remember, and i had recently started designing puppets. At the moment i am majoring on puppet design".... that's where the problem occurred. I am often very naughty and type as i would speak (in a conversational style). Steve now thinks i am studying for my Major in Puppet Design - when in fact i have never even been to university! I guess i could have used any number of words to replace "major". I could have said i was focusing, or concentrating... but sadly i didn't. I would like to clear this up and apologise right here to anyone who thinks i may have been trying to "big myself up"... that really isn't the case, i'm just a little lazy when i type (how many capital "i's" have you spotted?).

George Bernard Shaw is credited with having said: "England and America are two countries separated by the same language".

This weekend i will be meeting up with Phil Fletcher from the Gluvets again, so watch this space for collaboration videos and new characters around the corner!

All the best - Dave

Spam - but in a good way

Spam recieved his crex81 debut two days ago and I am glad to say has thus far been well recieved. I look forward to making some more videos with him... I think he has good potential. I learned a lot whilst making him, I definately have a few changes to make to the next character i make in his style. But that is what it's all about, building and learning. I have intentionally experimented with different styles of puppet, and very different shapes. I want to stretch myself to ensure I don't get stuck in a rut creatively. I think it's important to keep pushing forwards.

Below are Spam's first two appearances on YouTube, firstly on my vlog and secondly on crex81





all the best - Dave

I Hear With My Little Ear!

Ladies and Gentlemen allow me to introduce Spam! (Shelley chose the name) Spam has been made entirely out of off-cuts and fabric samples. This was more out of necessity than any big eco-friendly drive on my part.... but it did make me think a lot about how easy it is to throw something away which you can actually still use. Spam was an adventure from start to finish. Because of the confines of only using scraps (hence his working name of scrappy) Spam's shape and size was very much dictated by what odd bits of foam i had left. This was a nightmare at first, but as soon as i got into it i really enjoyed the challenge, in fact i am glad to say there is at least one more puppets worth of off-cuts laying around - watch this space!

This photo shows Spam's skull before it was covered in fabric. It was a great fun shape to cover, but not one i would choose again :)

You can see from the picture that the pieces of foam are not very large, one of the things i did to make this interesting for myself was try and cut the foam as little as possible. This pushed the design in a direction i would never have gone normally. All i did to trim them foam was to make the pattern symmetrical. As you can see here Spam gets his name from the vast expanse of forehead he has!

Despite the unusual head shape the mouth is very easy to use and is not restricted at all by the over sized forehead. Although at first this looks like a really unnatural shape... think for a minute about male Orangutan and they often have large folds of skin on their cheeks. I'm not sure if they get bigger with age... i'm not a zoologist (but i did want to be as a kid).

So this is what Spam looked at when i initially covered him with fabric. His face was a puzzle for me, it took me a long time to find eyes i was happy with... in this pic i have some half cut ping pong balls which i am using to experiment with eye placement. I basically finished Spam in 3 sittings. I made the skull and mouth in one sitting. The came back and worked out how to cover the head in a way which would give him a really nice unique look. Then finally this morning i completed his body and human hand.

I am very pleased with the outcome, i have experimented with some new techniques during the construction process. The most radical change to the construction process with this character would be the fact Spam is the first puppet i have ever made completely using a sewing machine! For most people this would not even be worth mentioning, but i have hand sewn everything in my puppet building career to date so it was a great relief to see the total build time decimated by the introduction of the Singer!

Let me know what you think of Spam, don't forget to check him out on the crex81 channel where he will be hosting a competition called "I Hear With My Little Ear".

all the best - Dave

Tried and tested or old and boring?

I'm pleased to say that people have read this blog from all over the world now! From Thailand to Portugal, and Iceland to Spain people interested in puppetry are coming together. Thanks to those of you who have taken time to comment. It's great to get feedback from people! In honour of those reading along for whom English is not their 1st language:

Hallo und herzlich willkommen!

Olá e bem - vindo!

Hola y bienvenidos!

Salut et bienvenue!

OK i need to come clean about something, i don't really speak any of the above languages... but Google Translate does! Well i studied some Spanish at school and college, but i am nowhere near good enough to be fluent. My comprehension is quite good, but i really lack the vocabulary to enter into any meaningful conversation.

Language is a great tool, comedians often use it to brilliant effect. I love good wordplay in comedy. Mispronounced words that are normally dull or mundane can take on whole new meanings and overtones. I will always remember a comedy sketch with Ronnie Barker when he apologises for "piss-pronouncing my worms". People always said of Peter Sellers that if he hadn't had such a good grip on the English Language he wouldn't have been able to distort it so badly with his character Inspector Clouseau. I love the Pink Panther, i bought the 6 DVD box set a couple of years back. The pace of the comedy is a lot slower than it is nowadays, but that's not always a bad thing.

It strikes me that nowadays we have taken a very definite step back into the kind of slapstick comedy which was all the rage almost 100 years ago. Harold Lloyd and Jackie Chan both share a passion for real, big action stunts, all performed by the artist themselves (no stunt doubles needed). Both are masters of their surroundings and their spacial awareness enables them to make the most of the set/scene they are on. Harold Lloyd died aged 78 in 1971, Jackie Chan would have been just 17 and already making a name for himself in the film industry. Jackie directed his first film in 1980, Shi di chu ma aged only 26.

They always say that nothing under the sun is new. In which case does that make our modern comedy tried and tested or old and boring?

let me know your thoughts

take care - Dave

The last day at 99?

For those of you that watch my YouTube videos on the crex81 channel you may have spotted a award on my page advertising the fact that i am on the most subscribed comedians list there. I have been for a while... a long while. I remember that i entered the list at number 21 (way back when it all first started). Inside a week i climbed to the heady heights of 19th most subscribed comedian of all time. Then gradually i began to slip. I haven't overall lost any subscribers, obviously some people decide to unsubscribe from time to time... but as they leave others find you, overall i have still been gaining subscribers. I have obviously been doing this at a slower rate than those around me. I also think there have been a lot of people who used to have directors accounts realise that there are more honours to be won if they switch to a less popular account style (comedian, guru, musician etc). Anyway i noticed at the beginning of this week i finally reached position 99! I thought i would celebrate my leaving of the most subscribed list rather than bemoan it. Thanks for everyone who has subscribed... it's been emotional :)

Yesterday i mentioned in my vlog that i am creating a puppet character for my the "I Hear With My Little Ear" feature on the crex81 channel. Well as soon i stopped the video i made 2 ears straight away and here they are! I've never started a character with the ears before but it just seemed to make sense with this one. Stay tuned to find out how the rest of him ends up. I am already calling him Scrappy due to the fact that i am using up lots of odds, ends and offcuts to make him from. He should be finished fairly soon, i'll post pics when i have them.

All the best - Dave

EPMF contd.

I must apologise for not posting more regularly on here, I have been a little under the weather over the past week. However feeling a lot better now i will show you a couple more photos and share some more about the EPMF. Sadly i can't share many more pictures with you for the simple fact i forgot to take more! I tend to do this when i enjoy myself... perhaps the numbers of photos i take is inversely proportional to the amount of fun I'm having?

Anyway this first (fairly terrible quality picture) is of one of my favourite performers of all time. It is Judy Buch. Judy Buch is an award winning ventriloquist and all round brilliant performer. She has an amazing ability to bring her puppet characters to life. She is a master of a wide variety of ventriloquist techniques. I am no expert on these techniques myself, but i have seen many ventriloquists in my time and she stands head and shoulders above most i have seen. I took the liberty of pinching a better photo of Judy off her web site so you can see a good photo of what she looks like. The character she is posing with is "Daisy", my wife's favourite puppet character. I think ventriloquists can be received by audiences like clowns and magicians sometimes... you either love them or hate them. I think it's one of those skills that when done badly it is very bad, but when done when it is breathtaking - just like magic. Judy is definitely one of the best vent acts I've ever seen.

This second photo shows the main auditorium. It is a fairly bizarre experience to get a group of puppeteers together... but to get 600 together is very strange. I have been fortunate enough to perform and lead workshops at the EPMF for the past 10 years. I remember vividly leading my first ever workshop aged 16. It was about performing with puppets on the streets (something i did a lot at the time). I love the festival atmosphere, the buzz of excitement surrounding the competitions and the rush to get to "that" workshop you've been looking forward to. I have started thinking already what workshops and performances i could offer next year. If you're going... I'll see you there!

All the best
Dave

EPMF 2007

For those that don't know the EPMF (European Puppet Ministry Festival) is an annual Puppet Festival which happens in Reading, Berkshire. It's run by a company called One Way UK and is aimed at people who use puppets in the context of a Sunday school or school assemblies by and large - although not exclusively. It is an opportunity to network and attend workshops to help you improve your puppetry techniques and show. This year 600 people registered for the weekend... it was a lot of fun.

As this was the 15th annual puppet festival we were pleased to have a few special guests. Dale VonSeggen is the founder of One Way Street. Dale has played a significant role in my life as a puppeteer so it was great to meet up with him again. Dale with the help of Harry Barrett enabled me to take part in the puppetry Dream Team at I-Fest in 1998 and 1999. This was a great time of learning for me and it really stretched me as a performer.

Another American visitor who attended the festival this weekend was Debra Fader. Debra was the Dream Team director the second year I was on the team. Debra is a great director and puppet builder. She has a real talent for choreography and her workshops rightly attracted a lot of attention.

I enjoyed being back involved with the festival crowd, it's been a while since I was involved regularly with One Way UK - about 5 years to try and put a number on it.

Thanks for reading - all the best

Dave